Archive for February, 2011

Today’s project actually just started as me doodling while contemplating what to do for today! I ended up liking where the sketch was going, so I just continued it. This scene is what I feel like could be a cozy coffee shop or something.

Ignore the awkward angle of the couch…

I didn’t spend a ton of time on that sketch so you get a bonus project today

I came across my Prismacolor markers today and decided to do something with them. I contemplated a few different things, and then ultimately decided to recreate the pear drawing from Day 4 that I drew on my droid. My Mimom suggested I do a painting based off of it, but we’ll start with this Prismacolor sketch.

Anywho, there you have it! I really enjoy sketching and I think there will be a lot more of it in this project!

You know how your parents always told you not to play with your food? Well, today I actually broke that rule. (Although, to be honest, I don’t recall my parents ever saying that…) I was inspired by my favorite 365 project Skull-A-Day for this one. Noah Scalin has the uncanny ability to create skulls out of everything, including a few out of food. (a few examples here, here, here, and here), so I took a cue from him with some creations made out of my Starburst Red Fruit Jellybeans (starburst jellybeans are my favorite Easter candy, so I was psyched to see them already at Target yesterday!!!).

I started with this sort of swirly pattern… thing.

Then I made a flower.

Then I made a face …

And finally, to pay homage to The Skull Master, I made a jelly bean skull

I found a pretty nice lamp base at HomeGoods about a month ago for $10 that I thought would be great for my living room to replace the $5 paper lamp from Big Lots. Since then, I’ve been searching for a shade to go with it, and finally decided the other day, because of a suggestion from a friend, to make my own shade and post it to my blog. So, I found a plain white inexpensive shade and ribbon and went to town!

Here’s the before.

Now, this ended up not being as easy as I thought. I started by wrapping a sheer back ribbon around the shade like I had seen done on some DIY show, and like in this picture, but I realized very quickly that I hadn’t bought nearly enough ribbon… so I improvised. I ended up spacing the ribbon out a lot more, creating more of a stripe effect. (By the way, I started by hot gluing the end of the ribbon to the inside of the shade.)

I also bought a thinner, more opaque, green ribbon in a damask pattern, which we all know is my favorite! I decided to wrap the bottom and top edge of the shade with this ribbon, but ran into further problems. I failed to take into account the fact that it was a tapered lamp, not flat, so the ribbon wouldn’t lie flat on it, and led to a lot of bunching.

So, this wasn’t one of my best home craft projects, for sure, but it’s not so terrible that I’m just going to toss it. It’ll do on this base for now, but I’ll probably move it to the cheap lamp in my bedroom eventually. I think I will also eventually try this project again with plenty of ribbon and a drum shaped shade, which I like better, anyways!

I’m not sure when these woven potholder crafts for kids were invented, but I know anybody around my age probably has fond memories of making these things.

I spotted this while browsing around Walmart tonight and decided that I HAD to have it! Plus, it was only $5. Please note how it says ages 5+! Haha, perfect for me! But honestly, I think this would be extremely difficult for a 5 year old.

Anyways, I know that you all probably know how to make these and I really need to go to bed, so I’ll spare you the written step by step and just show the pictures of each step.

My snazzy pattern for step 1

Mid weave

Weave done! And so is step 2

By the way, this is where I always got extremely confused as a child. I remember getting to this point many, many times and never finishing it because I couldn’t figure out how they stayed together! I must admit that it still, at 23 years old, took me awhile to figure it out even with directions, so I don’t feel so bad about my little self’s failures.

Finished Potholder!

I finally figured it out and completed it! I may try one of these another day and see if I can create a more intricate pattern. But for now, this was a good glimpse back to my childhood.

I decided to do another attempt at a recored duet today. This one is the old Irish Jig Molly Malone. It was a lot harder than the first recorder duet I did mainly because of the speed of it! I have to admit… I recorded it a bit slower and then sped it up in Garage Band, because I was going to be up all night trying to get it to tempo if I didn’t! At any rate, here it is!

While searching for music to play today online, I came across some sheet music of a certain band arranged specifically for recorders! I had to order it by mail and I won’t tell you the band yet, be be on the lookout in a week or so for some more recorder music… rock and roll style! I’m sure everyone will enjoy it!

For today’s, or rather yesterday’s post, I decided to do a quick rendering of a simple room in Google SketchUp and Photoshop. First, I did a simple large hall with a curved sort of bay window at the end where I pictured possibly having a fountain. Here’s what I ended with in Sketch-Up.

I then took it into Photoshop and created a bunch of layers and effects that would take forever for me to explain, so I’m just going to post the picture. (BTW that thing in the back is a sculpture!)

Some of the things look pretty out of proportion, but I did that on purpose, because I feel like renderings should never look too real. Also, I only spent a couple hours on it! It it were a serious project, I would spend more time and definitely include some scale figures and door knobs which I just realized I forgot! Anywho, I think it looks pretty good, all things considered!

The project that wouldn’t end has finally been completed!!! I thought I would never finish haha. Anyways, I’m so glad it’s done so I can move on to something else.

So I started today by doing the second lightest color of the red shades.

And then I did the lightest shade for both the red and blue: white.

There you have it! FINALLY finished the painting!

Next I took and old poster I had and covered it in wrinkled pieces of black tissue paper. (I’m sure you know where the tissue is from so I’m not going to even ink to it again ) I finished it all off by sticking the individual painted square onto the poster and I was DONE!

sitting on my hallway floor because there was better light in there haha

A little closer look of the painting itself.

Close up so you can see the detail. Sorry it’s sort of blurry!

Can you tell what it is? I purposely abstracted it quite a bit, but it was originally this picture I took in Paris.

It was a chair I saw in Les Musée des Arts Decoratifs (or the Museum of Decorative Arts) at the Louvre. I searched forever to see if I could find who designed this chair, but I couldn’t find it anywhere! I’ll keep looking and update you if I find it.

Overall, I’m extremely happy with this piece. It took FOREVER but I think that’s what makes it good! Eventually I would like to get a nice frame with glass for it, but I’m low on funds at the moment so that will have to wait! Maybe I’ll get it with my tax return? I’ll post a picture when it’s in it’s frame!

Thanks for bearing with me on this extra long project and with my RA flare up. I hope you all like this as much as I do!

Here we are at the third day of this project, and I’m still not done!! I’m still having a lot of joint trouble today, but I’m also realizing that this project is a much larger undertaking than I originally thought.

So today I started by doing the second darkest shades of the red and blue.

You probably still have no idea what this is

Next, after a break, I did the third darkest shades of both colors. (sorry for the bad pic… didn’t have enough battery to use flash.)

Starting to get the idea?

And the last thing I did today was to add the second lightest blue color. (didn’t make it to the red)

Flowery! But probably still not what you’re thinking of!

So that’s where I am tonight. Tomorrow I will do the second lightest red color and then the lightest of both shades, which is white for both. I will also be sticking all the little squares down on something… not sure what yet… maybe the back of an old poster? Anyways, I will definitely be through tomorrow, finally!!!!!